Guilt, shame and regret

My interview yesterday morning, which revolved around the state of education in South Africa, started with a greeting in a language I did not understand. At least I think it was a greeting. Maybe he thought that as a South African born journalist living in London, who goes by the Twitter handle, ‘staying focused on […]

Putlocker, piracy and parents: when sharing isn’t always caring

“Art is art. That’s how it is in our household. No way would any of us ever download free music or films. Absolutely no way!” It was an emphatic response to the question I’d put to the crowd at coffee last Friday: “How would you feel if your children were downloading films or music illegally?” […]

The day Madiba died

At 10pm on December 5th 2013, at Johannesburg’s strangely quiet OR Tambo Airport, I found the only open outlet where I could buy a much-needed coffee – The Mug & Bean. Here I began transcribing the recordings from a two-day conference on why public-private partnerships could be the engine of Africa’s structural transformation. The opportunity […]

The Cloud Lifts

At 4am the day after my Gmail account was hacked over a month ago now, I penned a blog, Google’s Very Dark Cloud (see below if you didn’t get a chance to read it before I binned it). Sleep was elusive and there was little else to do while I waited for two hours to […]

Our Monsters on Moshi

Last night my six-year-old son signs in to MoshiMonsters, the popular online children’s game, which now has over 50 million users worldwide. He is very excited because he got a monthly membership for Christmas so he can now do more with his pet Monster. So while I get dinner started he clicks through to his […]